


The Calling

by Glowcloudwasright



Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Familiars, Gen, WITCHES AU, its the same but they have magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25925875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowcloudwasright/pseuds/Glowcloudwasright
Summary: Since their arrival at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp of Wizardry and Magick for Hardcore Lady Types, the girls had gotten into nothing but trouble, or amazing adventures, as they described them.Today, they mark an important day in the life of any witch. They get their familars.
Relationships: April/Jo (Lumberjanes), Mal Yoo/Molly (Lumberjanes)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea sitting around for a while a made a bunch of headcanons for it, so I decided to write it! If more comes out of this drive I'll probably turn it into a series but for now I'm just focused on this idea of them getting their animal companions/familiars.
> 
> (Also, I know I have a bunch of on going multichapters, I'm sorry, I just have to ride this impulse to write wherever it takes me but they will all get resolution, I swear)

That summer morning was quiet, like any other. The sun rose lazily from the back of the mountains, shining through every window and awakening every living thing inside the forest.

Then Ripley made sure to wake up every living thing outside the forest.

“It’s today! It’s today!” The little girl kept screaming, running from bed to bed to awaken her cabin mates.

Jen groaned in response when Ripley went to her bed to shake her awake, barely able to open her eyes at that ungodly hour. Usually they would have about two more hours of sleep, but it was clear Ripley had other plans.

“What is today, Rip?” Molly asked, poking her head from under the sheets and trying to comprehend such ruckus so early in the morning.

Bubbles, Molly’s pet raccoon poked his little head too from where he slept at Molly’s feet.

“Today is the day we get our familiars!” Ripley reminded, gripping her stuffed unicorn toy tightly against her chest.

“Ripley, that isn’t until later tonight.” Jo groaned, pulling her pillow on top of her head trying to muffle the noise.

“At midnight, which we won’t be able to be awake for if we don’t get enough sleep.” April said. To be fair, she was just as excited as Ripley, but after the day they had had yesterday, sleep was much needed.

Not unlike any other day they had had at camp honestly. Since their arrival at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp of Wizardry and Magick for Hardcore Lady Types, they had gotten into nothing but trouble, or amazing adventures, as the girls described them.

Of course, going to a magic training camp wasn’t supposed to be your conventional summer camp. Mingling with magical creatures and mastering ancient knowledge was an essential part of the experience, but they had somehow managed to surpass expectations, for better and for worse. If you were to ask Jen, their counselor, she would say it was for worse, but not even she could deny this summer had been magical in more than the usual sense.

“Go back to bed, Rip. It’s like 6 am.” Mal tried to reason with the little girl to earn a few extra hours of sleep, but that was pretty much futile now. Ripley was very much awake, and by consequence, very much bored and excited about the day ahead.

“But I can’t! I’m too excited, there’s really no going back to bed now.” Ripley answered matter-of-factly. 

Mal shot her a small smile; knowing Ripley, she was being serious on not letting them sleep. No one really blamed her, the rest of the girls were eager out of their minds too, even if they didn’t store nearly as much energy as Ripley.

Today they would mark a big milestone in the life of any magic user. Today was the day they got their familiars, their animal companions for life. Who wouldn’t be excited about that? Some cabins had already had their ceremonies or “calling” as it was called, and it was mesmerizing to see the campers run around with their animal companions, ranging from small field mice to moose that stood tall among the pine trees.

Rosie, the camp’s head counselor had already talked every camper through the ceremony, despite being a known rite amongst witches. It was an ancient ceremony after all, held under the light of the moon at precisely midnight, when magic was at its strongest point. Once the witch’s magic was strong enough, at around their teenage years, their familiar would present itself. 

After Ripley came back from getting ready, thanks top Jen’s recommendations to get them a few extra minutes of sleep, the rest of Roanoke cabin reluctantly got up and went through their morning routine. Light chatter got around the cabin, since they still had to kill about an hour to head to the Mess Hall to have breakfast.

“What do you think you guys are going to get?” Ripley asked her slightly more awake cabin mates.

“I know I’m getting something totally awesome. Like a lion or a bear. Or a tiger!”” April said, flexing an arm with a winning smile. The girl didn’t stand taller than five feet, but she compensated with a big heart and even bigger strength.

Jo rolled her eyes next to her and grinned. They had known each other their whole lives, so she was accustomed with April’s smugness. Nonetheless, she found it adorable, and hilarious to poke fun at.

“Or like a munchkin cat.” She added, earning a playful nudge from the smaller girl.

“I hope I get something cool too. Just not a sea animal or anything.” Mal said. The girl wasn’t very fond of water, so staying away from it would be the ideal scenario.

“That’s really unlikely.” Jen said, straightening the creases on her blouse. “None of you are particularly drawn to water magic and the camp isn’t really oriented to that like other seaside training camps. If any of you got a marine animal it would probably be April, but that’s still improbable.”

“Like a white shark…” April muttered, her eyes shining.

Mal let out a relieved sigh at Jen’s remark. Her fear of water was well justified after having met several water monsters that tried to eat them throughout the summer, ranging from small puddle leeches to huge marine serpents at the lake. Mal had had about enough of water to last her a life time. Meeting the mermaids had been really cool though.

Jen went on to open one of the cabin windows and like cue a small tawny owl flew in. This was Jen’s familiar, Copernicus.

Despite being smaller than other owl familiars and even regular owls, he was incredibly smart, Jen had even taught him several tricks, like helping her categorize her pens and handkerchiefs and the most recent and useful, track down the girls when they inevitably ran into the woods pursuing some supernatural creature. 

The owl was also incredibly sweet, serving Jen as not only companion but cuddle buddy when they stayed up late at night studying constellations and other magical astronomical phenomena. He had also warmed up to the girls quickly, even if they had given the poor creature some extra work looking out for them all summer.

“Good morning, Copernicus.” Jen greeted the owl once it perched on her shoulder and snuggled her cheek. 

He then flew over to perch on Ripley’s head, sensing the overly excitement of the girl. Ripley laughed in exchange and scratched his tummy, while the owl hooted happily.

The group left the cabin to make their way to the Mess Hall for breakfast, while Copernicus fluttered around them playing with Ripley.

“What was it like when you got Copernicus, Jen?” Molly asked her, watching the beautiful bird circle around them avoiding Ripley’s attempts to catch him.

Jen was older than them and much more versed in magic, granting her the title of counselor, so she had gotten her familiar a few years prior, at that same camp when she was just starting her magical studies.

While they sat down at a table at the Mess Hall, waiting for the breakfast line to shorten a bit, Jen told them about her own ceremony.

“To be honest, people make too much of a fuss about it. Excluding the creepy cloaks and the ominous instructions, it’s very simple.” Jen began, and the girls listened pensively. “You just go into the woods, since that’s where the magical concentration is stronger and after a few minutes your familiar would walk up to you. Or fly, in my case. It’s not even that scary, since you kind of feel like you already know your familiar from before. It’s actually beautiful.” 

Jen was really passionate about the topic, despite specializing in astral magic.

Despite being as excited as everyone, most people were fairly afraid. Molly was one of the few people who were much more afraid than excited. Jen knew that, since she had been in charge of preparing her girls for stuff like this all summer, so she tried to sooth any worries.

“Yeah, what’s up with the creepy cloaks we have to wear?” Mal asked.

“Meh, its just tradition.” Jo answered, having researched on the topic since before they got to camp.

“I just don’t understand why Bubbles can’t be my familiar. We’re already best friends.” Molly said with a small pout, scratching the Raccoon that was currently resting on her head, like usual.

“Well, familiars aren’t common animals.” Jen explained.

“Even more uncommon than Bubbles.” April added, scratching the raccoon’s fuzzy tail.

“Oh, I know about that! Can I say it Jen, can I?” Ripley said excitedly. Jen nodded with a smile for the girl to continue.

“Familiars aren’t really animals, they are _corcereal_ manifestations-“

“Corporeal.” Jo corrected. Ripley barely heard her.

“of your magic. They come from the spirit realm and take form an animal so you are closer and more comfortable with them. My abuela told me about it.”

“That’s right, Rip. That’s why they’re called familiars, they are creatures who are bound to your magic and by extension, to you. The animal form is influenced on your magic, life style, personality.” Jen finished for her, petting Copernicus.

“So, basically the forest is going to have us take a personality test and spit back a magical pet.” Mal said.

“More or less.” Jo answered through a laugh. The comment seemed to lighten the mood around the table.

Despite the lighter turn to the discussion, Molly still seemed preoccupied, and Jen noticed it. Careful to keep her voice low enough only for Molly to hear, she placed a hand on Molly’s shoulder, making the blonde girl turn to face her suddenly.

“Hey Molly, it’s okay if you’re nervous-“

“Nervous? Pfft. Who’s nervous?” Despite her affirmations, Molly let out a very nervous laugh.

“I can see that” Jen said with a smile. “But, if you were, it’s perfectly normal. I was nervous before my ceremony too, but it’s really harmless and lasts about 5 minutes. Besides, me, Rosie and other counselors will be around just in case.”

“I thought we were supposed to go alone.” Molly answered, slightly confused.

“Into the woods, yes. But you’re still kids, so we stick around just in case.” Jen said. “And you know it takes a village to stop Ripley from running into the woods.” This finally put a smile into Molly's face.

“Thanks, Jen.”

Mal had picked up on Molly’s worries too, having stayed up a couple nights before talking about it. Somehow, sharing their worries and fears seemed to make everything less worrisome, less scary.

She squeezed Molly’s hand from under the table and shot her a reassuring smile, which Molly returned with a small blush.

“Hey, but if your familiar takes after your personality that means it’ll probably be best friends with Bubbles too.” April said, pointing towards Bubbles who was now chirping happily in Molly’s lap.

“Yeah! Our cat back home, Jonesy, is best friends with all of my sibling’s familiars. I bet my familiar will be bestest of friends with Jonesy too.” Ripley added.

Molly believed that kind of made sense. Right now she was only hoping to get a more manageable animal and get through with the ceremony quickly and swiftly.

“Hey, guys!” A familiar voice broke Molly from her thoughts.

It was Barney, their friend from Zodiac cabin and Marigold, their familiar. A small tabby cat, who was often perched on Barney’s shoulder or walking close to their feet. Barney had transferred into camp midsummer, with the uncanny help from the girls after one of their many adventures. But that’s a story for another day.

Barney was one of the first campers to have their familiar with them, from before they transferred camps.

“Tonight’s your calling, right?” Barney asked after they had exchanged greetings. The ceremonies were usually held cabin by cabin, and it was finally the Roanokes turn.

Barney’s own cabin, the Zodiacs, had had their ceremony a few weeks prior.

Barney joined them to chatter about their nerves and excitement and to share a few stories of their cabin’s own mishaps with their familiars. Like Hes’ moose, waking her up trying to peek her huge head through the window of the cabin every morning and startling her or how adorable was seeing Diane cuddling with Wubby and Doughnut, her pair of white Borzois (Although Barney was in danger of being hexed by Diane for telling them that, all in good nature of course.)

Activities at camp varied greatly, from more normal activities like enchanted bracelet making and a magically tweaked version of softball to potion making and care for magical beasts; the Roanokes were usually much more drawn to the latter activities.

Today, however, their minds couldn’t occupy any thoughts that didn’t have to do with their increasing excitement and consequently nerves about the upcoming ceremony.

Only a few hours left for show time. Easy as pie, right?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with this witchy AU, as promised, little animal companions under the cut

After a rather uneventful day Molly found herself resting from archery practice under a tree, with Bubbles lying peacefully on her lap. Her worries still swarmed her mind, despite her cabin mates’ best efforts.

It felt strange to have to get used to the idea of being magically bound to a technically-not-an-animal for the rest of her life. Of course this was all a complicated magical, higher-power affair, but mistakes happened all the time. What if she was bound to an unpleasant animal for eternity? Or one who could barely stand her or Bubbles? Or even one who didn’t like her friends, or worse, didn’t like Mal. That would be horrible, what does it say about you if your own familiar doesn’t like your girlfriend?

Her thoughts drifted to her own family’s line of familiars, known for being mostly birds of prey, like her sister’s falcon, which took a liking of hiding her stuff and her own mother’s vulture, whose sole presence was intimidating.

“Hey, Mol! What’s up?” Mal’s voice shook Molly out of her musings, just in time.

Mal sat down next to Molly under the old oak by the soccer field and placed a small kiss on her cheek, making Molly smile sweetly and blush. Mal always helped get her mind off of things.

“Hey, how was divination?” Molly asked, remembering Mal signing up for the activity that morning.

“Good. Wren kinda spoiled what’s for lunch today though.” Mal said, earning a fake groan and a laugh from Molly.

That beautiful laugh always made her heart flutter, but mostly Mal was thankful she could take Molly’s thoughts away from her worries about the whole familiars’ thing for a while, despite being slightly afraid herself.

And oh sweet Joan Jett, was Mal as worried as her girlfriend.

Mal always described herself as cautious, to say the least, so since she was very young and found out that she was able to do magic like her mom, she knew she had to be extra careful. There was the usual precautions of not letting non-magics know about the existence of this parallel world that coexisted with them, but there was also the cautiousness in not hurting herself or others because of a badly cast spell or an accidental summoning. That summer had tested Mal’s bravery, that and her blood pressure, but when things seemed to be a little too much for her, a little too scary or a little too hard, there were always her friends to support her.

There was always Molly to hold her hand and help her persevere. She was constantly working on stop being the scaredy cat of the group, despite Molly telling her that that couldn’t be more far from the truth, so Mal hoped her familiar didn’t reflect that.

-

At the other side of camp, April and Ripley had just gone out of their Dark arts and crafts workshop, joining Jo at a nearby table, were she was tinkering with an old crystal ball from the divination workshop.

Jo had a passion for mixing human technology and magic to improve both, similar to what her dads did back home, sometimes going against Rosie’s rule of no technology allowed at camp, but that hardly ever stopped her.

“You know, last time you broke a crystal ball we had to exorcise a demon from Zodiac cabin.” April said, taking a seat next to Jo.

“Oh yeah, Hes still won’t let us in their cabin.” Ripley scratched the back of her neck, remembering the incident.

“That won’t happen this time.” Jo defended, sticking her tongue out at April’s remark. “And Wren and Emily seemed to have fun anyway.”

Ripley quickly grew bored from the crystal ball and chose to play around with her stuffed unicorn, Mr. Sparkles, which she had been carrying around all day.

“Why did you take Mr. Sparkles out of the cabin, Ripley? He could get dirty.” April asked.

Ripley stopped throwing the stuffed toy around to answer, bringing it close to her chest. “Because I don’t want to forget him back at the cabin when it’s time for the calling.” She answered.

Ripley was never scared of anything, no matter if it were ghosts, scary movies, magical beasts, ancient gods or a mix of everything. It was admirable really and even worrisome sometimes, but not even the brave little girl was exempt from feeling nervous. She knew that no matter what she would love her familiar, it wasn’t even a matter of the magical connection between the spirit and the witch, it was simply because Ripley had copious amounts of love to go around, especially for animals, magical or not.

“Do you think my familiar could be a unicorn?” Ripley suddenly asked, eyeing the stuffed toy in her hands. “Or a velociraptor, or a giant moth!”

“I don’t think prehistoric creatures count as familiars, Rip.” April answered with an apologetic smile. They had encounter similar creatures that summer, but barely because they were magical and more because of time stretching shenanigans that seemed to happen fairly often in those woods.

“And magical creatures as familiars are super rare.” Jo said, still waving her screwdriver around. Ripley seemed to slouch slightly at the remark, so April nudged Jo under the table to lift her eyes from the crystal ball. “But still possible, could be a chimera or a gryphon; maybe even a unicorn.” Jo quickly added and Ripley seemed to beam once more.

“What do you think you’re getting, Jo? You never said.” Ripley asked the older girl.

April turned an empathetic gaze towards her; they had actually had this conversation before, late one night.

By human and magical standards, Jo was what most people would consider a genius, and oh did she know it. But having a genius brain often came accompanied with some amount of pressure, from her dads, her teachers back home and general expectations from people. Coming to this camp instead of enrolling early on a prestigious magic academy had already been somewhat of a big request from Jo to her dads, but she argued that she was still a kid who wanted to have fun with her best friend.

Still, Jo felt like a good chunk of her life was already mapped out and she had little saying on what was in said map. This included to some extent, her familiar. Being adopted meant there weren’t those pressures some of her peers went through to maintain some sort of family line of similar familiars, like most powerful witch families, but a familiar was an essential part of a witch’s magic, helping perform a variety of rituals and spells and playing a big part on developing the user’s magic.

There was an unspoken pressure for Jo to have a very powerful familiar that would help her nurture her magic, and frankly, she hated it. Of course her dads were really supportive, but the feeling always sat on the back of her head, poking its little ugly head at times like these. 

“I’m not sure.” Jo simply answered. It sounded better than saying “I don’t care.”

April noticed, so she went to grab Jo’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. Jo seemed to relax at that, and returned the gesture with a thankful smile.

"My dads' familiars are really cool though, I hope I get a lion or an albatross like them." Jo added to lighten the mood of the question slightly.

"Samson is the cutest kitty." April commented, remembering some evenings spent over at Jo's house playing with the huge lion like it was a kitten.

"Cooool." Ripley sighed, hoping to get to meet the giant kitty someday. "What is your dad's familiar April?"

"Oh my dad is not magic. My mom was." April explained, sort of used to this conversation by now. Still, it was Jo's turn to give the smaller hand in hers a reassuring squeeze as the girl talked.

"He's very cool with it though. He was so sure I'm gonna get a big animal that he built a den and a stable on our yard just in case." April said proudly. "My mom's familiar was a beautiful snowy owl we called Milou. We still have her birdhouse around." April's voice was lower and calmer now, with a sad smile on her face.

She had lost her mom due to illness a few years ago now, but of course it was never an easy topic to talk about. April wouldn't openly admit it, but she hoped for a big strong familiar that would protect her loved ones, her father and her friends.

Beyond the common hopes amongst witches to get a "cool" animal, April didn't care much for that. She knew she was a tough girl, she didn't need much protection herself, but she made it her goal to always protect and care for those she loved, no matter what. She believed that if familiars were truly a reflection of the user's spirit, a big animal would embody her desire to protect just fine, no place in her mind for doubt.

Except for a few rare occasions late at night, when her nerves and insecurities got the best of her thinking.

-

The day went by faster than expected and after dinner and a few kind wishes of good luck from other campers, Rosie instructed the Roanokes on what the ceremony would be like.

Lights out at camp was around 9 pm, but they were free to sleep or occupy their time however they wanted, even if Jen made a point to stay in the cabin, knowing the type of shenanigans the girls could get into if not. When it was time, Rosie said they would simply "know".

Jen later explained she had set an alarm for 11:30 pm so they could make their way to the woods in time for midnight.

Before Mal could even raise her hand to ask, Rosie reminded them that yes, cloaks were mandatory.

Only Ripley and April seemed stoked about it really.

Back at the cabin the ambient resembled that of that same morning, except instead of only Ripley running around beaming through the cabin, all the other Roanokes and even little Copernicus had joined. On a regular night Jen would beg them to go to sleep as per camp rules, but today was a special night, so she allowed the loud conversation and jumping around.

The girls had their camp cloaks on as instructed and played around with them like they were super hero or vampire capes; it was honestly an adorable twist on the usually grim attire.

Then, a very unceremonious sound broke the playful commotion; it was Jen's alarm from an old phone she had sneaked into camp for times like these.

Every Roanoke froze were they stood respectively, except for April, who’s face caught a fugitive pillow projectile from Ripley by accident.

"It's time." Jen said, grabbing her own cloak and checking the girls one last time before leaving the cabin.

The walk to the woods wasn't unfamiliar to any camper, certainly not to the Roanokes, but tonight it felt particularly long. The moon shone a bit too bright, the trees were a little too tall and the deep end of the forest seemed deeper than ever.

The group met Rosie just by the edge of the woods, where she was wearing a similar, longer cloak; maroon, unlike the girls' black ones or Jen's green one. They all wondered what the different colors meant, if only they had payed attention during orientation day.

"Ready, Roanokes?" Rosie blared, crossing her arms and her characteristic red lipstick smile on her face.

Decisively, all five girls nodded almost at the same time, pushing back any insecurities or nerves from the day. Or at least hoping they did.

"Who wants to go first?" Rosie asked, and characteristically, all five Roanokes stepped forward; even Molly, if a little dubiously.

"No surprises there." Rosie commented, her smile still in place. "Guess you'll all go first then."

"Is that allowed?" Jen asked quickly, confused at the sudden change of plans. Normally, the ceremony was held one by one.

"It's a little unorthodox, but it still does the trick."

Jen stiffened slightly, although she trusted Rosie's better judgement. Most of the time.

The five girls exchanged a look at this, but stepped up despite everything. Mal gave Molly one last reassuring hand squeeze before each went their separate ways.

-

Each girl took off in different directions as instructed, slowly but surely making their way through the dense forest, pushing past branches and bushes. No one was sure how long would they have to walk or how deep into the woods they would have to go, but there was no going back now.

Straight north was Mal, who took off her hood the moment she was out of sight from Rosie and Jen, it honestly made it hard to see on top of the deep darkness of the forest. She honestly wondered why they couldn’t just give them a flashlight or something. Even a gas lamp would do if they wanted to maintain this creepy guise so bad. Mal tried to shake the complaints from her mind, choosing to focus on connecting with her familiar and get out of the forest as fast as possible, especially since the woods tonight seemed even spookier than ever, if that was even possible.

Molly was off northeast, in the direction of the old creek near camp. Bubbles apparently wasn’t allowed to accompany her, so he stayed behind with Jen and Copernicus. Molly wished she could pet Bubbles’ soft fur right now to sooth her nerves, instead grapping the edges of her cloak tightly. She didn’t really mind the walk through the dark forest, she had never been afraid of the dark, and she was much more scared of what she would walk out of the forest with.

“Please, just a nice animal. Just a small, nice animal…” She muttered to herself, all the while looking up to the tree branches.

On the opposite direction was Jo, walking surely through the woods and looking up at her surroundings trying to make up exactly where she was. She knew it was useless, since the forest had the tendency to shift and confuse any wanderers when the magical concentration was at its peak, like tonight, but she tried nonetheless. When all that failed, she looked up at the stars, recognizing several constellations along the way. She remembered the stories she had heard about said constellations, like Pegasus and the Ursa Major, wondering if her spirit would take on the form of any of those rare beasts.

She looked down back at the ground and frowned, feeling stupid about her worries. No one could anticipate or even plan what their familiar would be, so why was she trying so hard to do so?

Why was everyone around her trying to plan it for her too?

Jo pulled the hood of her cloak to cover her face even more, like she usually did with her red hoodie when she was uncomfortable, and resumed her walk, refusing to look up at the stars again for that night.

Elsewhere, April made her way through the woods with decisive and gigantic steps, or as gigantic as her short legs allowed. Her cloak was still in place, neatly placed like from the moment she had left the cabin. Her sure step never faltered, never doubted, and her big shiny eyes were open looking for any sign of her familiar. She was even growing impatient after a while; she had never been good with surprises or anticipation.

"Helloooo? Any magic creatures from the spirit realm around here?" She called, to no avail.

"Maybe if I go pspspspsps." April called again, would the spirit even react to that? If it was a cat maybe, but there was no way to be sure.

Then, deeper into the woods than any of the other Roanokes was Ripley, who skipped happily along the old trail, swinging an old branch like it was a sword. Her hood had long fallen back from her head and she had to remind herself to not trip over the cloak or get it too dirty. She always enjoyed a trip to the woods, especially at night, but she just couldn't wait to meet her familiar, her mind swarming with all the possibilities before her.

She continued to swing her branch happily, until a sound echoed from behind her, grabbing her attention.

"Hello?" Ripley called, turning her head to the side to try and see what was making that noise.

Mal, on her own end of the woods heard a noise too, like the snap of a branch being stepped on. She quickly turned around.

"That better be my familiar." She murmured to herself, suddenly walking towards the noise against her better judgement.

Then she heard a strange noise, like the hiss of a snake, but not quite.

"Oh don't tell me you're a snake..." Mal kept walking towards the noise, one eye shut close in anticipation of a dangerous reptile.

Another noise drew her attention, like the snap of branches, several at the same time, nearing her from some other direction. Mal stood still, only one of those noises could be her familiar, and she wasn't too eager to find out what the other could be.

She turned around, trying to cover every direction surrounding her, even if she could barely see anything in the dark woods, at least to know in which direction to run if it came down to that. She started retrieving, walking backwards and eyeing the deeper end of the woods, when she clashed with something, or rather someone.

Mal's bone chilling scream was soon met with another similar scream, one all too familiar. She looked down to find April, who had clashed against her in the darkness.

"April! What the junk are you doing here?!" Mal asked once she identified the girl before her.

"I could ask you the same!" April answered, adjusting her cloak. "I heard a noise and followed it thinking that could be my familiar. You were the one stepping on all those branches?"

Mal saw behind her a path of twigs, seemingly broken when she stepped on them without noticing. "I think I was. Sorry. But I heard a noise too, like a weird short hiss?"

"You mean this?" April emulated again the noise she was using to try and attract her familiar. Mal stood there, not knowing what to make of having being scared to near death by a little girl calling for a cat or anything similar.

"What are you even doing calling for cats in the middle of the woods!?" Mal finally asked, exasperated.

"My familiar might be a big cat! You never know." April defended.

“Whatever. Should we split up again? Will the spirits even come if we're not alone? "

"I don't know." April shrugged.

Before any of them could make a decision another noise drew their attention, the same sound of snapping branches, but much quicker and bigger, like something stomping through the woods. Both girls turned to face a tall bush that extended slightly beyond their eye level, the leaves in it rustled, like something was trying to get through it. Instinctively Mal took a step back, and April a step forward, both with their fists curled up and ready to fend for their lives.

"Hey guys!" But it was Ripley, coming out of the bushes with leaves and twigs in her hair. Her cloak long forgotten somewhere in the woods.

Mal took a deep breath to steady her nerves at the sight of the little girl.

"Ripley! What the junk?" April asked. Her heart beating fast and catching back her breath.

"Yeah, same." Mal added, coming closer to Ripley to help her get the woodland from her hair.

"I heard a noise coming from here and I thought it could be my familiar, so I ran!"

"Where even is your cloak?" April asked.

"I don't know." Ripley shrugged again. The cloak was the least of their worries right now.

"Okay, this is definitely not going well." Mal concluded. It was expected to run into someone in the woods, even if the chances were slim, but to run into both April and Ripley at the same time? She might have not payed attention during orientation day, but this was not how the ritual was supposed to go.

"Okay, what about this, w-" Before April could finish forming a plan, a sudden groan resounded from behind her.

In other circumstances, they might have believed it was a growl or some similar sound, but now they were much more aware of their human company rather than the possible magical beasts around them, and they knew that exasperated groan all too well.

"Agh, why couldn't they give us a flashlight?" Jo came stumbling in front of them right then, forcing her way through the dark forest and not too happy about it.

The taller girl nearly tripped, until she lifted her gaze to see three familiar faces.

Molly was close behind her, walking at a slower and calmer pace.

"Guys?" Molly said from behind Jo, surprised from finding not another one of her cabin mates but all three.

“Hello!” Ripley waved at them like they had just run into each other at the Mess Hall and not during a very important and ancient ceremony. Mal and April, now resigned to the situation, waved too, although less eagerly.

“You guys ran into each other too?” Jo asked.

“Yes, how does that even happen?!” Mal answered, now at her wits ends. Molly decided it was a good time to hug her, calming her almost instantly.

“Well, two is a coincidence, but five…” April trailed off, looking around at the tall trees. Something weird was going on in those woods.

-

After quickly debating their situation the girls decided to walk back to camp, maybe they could start over or something, wherever camp was anyway.

As soon as the group turned around to leave, a gust of cold wind flew through the trees and lifted their cloaks and ruffled their hair. The night was usually chilly, but this was no ordinary draft, it was colder than anything they had experienced, the kind of cold that reached to your bones. 

Then they saw it, a bright white light shining through the branches of the tallest tree around, blinding like the headlights of a truck but much more eerie.

“What the hell is that?” Jo asked, shielding her eyes from the light and voicing everybody’s thoughts.

“Jo, language, Ripley is here.” April reminded her, trying to see anything beyond her own nose.

The group was ready to either run or fight once more. They were all here now and it was certain that not even Rosie’s old truck could have lights like that one, so the only remaining possibility was a magical creature of sorts, ready to maul them or whatever demons did to unknowing campers.

“Wait, is that a bird?” Mal asked, suddenly drawn by the strange light.

“Bird? What are you talking about Mal?” Molly asked from beside her.

None of the other girls could see it, but Mal was certain there was the silhouette of a small bird, perched on the branch were the light seemed to be coming from. Mal extended her hand towards the silhouette, shielding her eyes trying to see the mysterious bird before her, until it suddenly took flight, like it had just seen it unsuspecting prey and charge against Mal.

“Mal!” Molly cried when Mal suddenly flinched at the attack.

After a few seconds she noticed there was no pain nor punch against her, so either the beast had missed or…

It was perched on her head.

Mal looked up once she felt the small beak of the bird on top of her head and the little creature hopped down to her hand, now eye level with Mal.

The small bird in question, a crow with very ruffled feathers and a playful twinkle in its eyes, turned its head to the side, curious. Adorably, Mal emulated the gesture, probably just as confused as the little bird at the sudden encounter.

Then something clicked, like an instinct or a memory.

Something very ancient that felt suddenly remembered once she looked into the dark eyes of the bird.

This was her familiar. 

“Mal! That’s your familiar!” Ripley cried happily. The others had figured it out, but the astonishing display had left them speechless standing in their respective places.

“Yeah… Yeah, I think it is.” Mal said, remembering she probably had to say something.

She then turned around to face the others; the black crow still perched on her hand happily, croaking at the sight of the other witches.

“Guys, this is Bowie.” Mal announced, like the bird was an old friend of hers. Which, per tradition, kind of was.

Another peculiarity about the bond between familiars and witches was that, during the first seconds of the encounter, a witch would know the name of their familiar instantly. Some speculated this was the spirit’s doing, introducing itself to its new companion through the magical bond and all that. 

“Your familiar is a raven?” April asked, eyeing the dark plumage under the moonlight.

“I think it’s a crow.” Molly said with a smile, walking closer to inspect the beautiful bird perched in Mal’s hand. This, in exchanged, cawed happily at the sight of the blonde girl.

The bird then flew off Mal’s hand, circling around her a few times and then the group of girls, to finally perch in Molly’s shoulder, snuggling her cheek before going back to Mal. Molly let out a laugh at the adorable display, this was definitely Mal’s familiar.

“Alright, don’t embarrass me now…” Mal said to the bird once it came back to her, a blush appearing on her face.

“It’s so cuuute.” Ripley cried, and Jo and April laughed.

Molly walked up to them and held Mal’s hand. “I think it’s adorable.”

“At least now we know the familiars will appear despite being all together.” Jo commented, crossing her arms.

“Who do you think is next?” Molly asked, eyeing the remaining four familiar-less witches.

No one wanted to be next, but at the same time, they all wanted to be next. It was a complicated and confusing feeling.

“Girls! Mal?! Ripley?!” So, maybe they weren’t all together yet.

They recognized Jen’s voice calling for them. Then the hoot of Copernicus.

The group called back, until they were reunited with their counselor, Ripley wrapping Jen on a tight hug.

“What’s going on? You’ve been out here for almost an hour.” Jen asked, clearly worried. None of them had noticed exactly how long it had been.

Apparently the ceremony wasn’t supposed to last more than 20 minutes tops, not to mention an hour. But then again, when had things gone smoothly with the Roanokes?

Copernicus took notice of the crow perched in Mal’s shoulder, and quickly flew over to inspect it. The two birds then took flight and circled around a few times, almost like they were playing. Jen congratulated Mal on meeting her familiar, proud as she could be. After the girls explained that she had apparently just missed the occurrence, she was slightly disappointed but much more intrigued. She never knew familiars could present themselves in front of other’s who weren’t their witch companion. 

“Go tell Rosie I found them before she decides to chop down the woods.” Jen told Copernicus, who hooted back in understanding and took off into the night sky.

“What do we do now, Jen?” Ripley asked.

“Should we go back or just… wait around?” Molly said, but Jen seemed as lost as them. This was unconventional to say the least.

“I’m not sure… Moving around these woods, especially tonight, is dangerous. The magic concentration would probably only make us walk in circles. We should wait for Copernicus to guide us back.” Jen suddenly thought her idea of looking for the girls in the woods hadn’t been her best one yet, but hey, she found them and at least they were all together now.

“I know! Maybe Bowie can fly around and guide us back to camp.” Mal offered, and the little crow seemed to agree with a cheerful caw.

The group smiled, except for Jen who didn’t seem sure, explaining that a connection with a familiar had to be made stronger over the years to communicate efficiently. Sending Bowie off to fly over the woods could be pointless, since the bird barely knew where or what the camp was.

Nonetheless, Mal and the rest pleaded Jen to allow them to give it a go, overly excited to see a familiar in action. Jen agreed with a sigh.

“Alright Bowie, take us back to camp.” Mal said, lifting dramatically the arm were Bowie had been perched, prompting the crow to fly away past the tall trees and into the night.

It was mesmerizing really, seeing the magical animal fly off into the dark; it’s dark wings reflecting the moonlight like a shard of obsidian until it was lost between the dense foliage.

Then it circled back down and perched on Mal’s head with a happy caw, dropping a pebble onto Mal’s hand.

Well, that didn’t work. But at least they got a small laugh out of it, much to Mal’s annoyance.

“C’mon Bowie…” Mal complained and Molly placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, still suppressing her laughter.

“It’s okay Mal, Bowie is fairly new to this world anyway.” April said. Bowie cawed again, almost like he was agreeing.

Yet another sound caught their attention, deep inside the woods. You would think that after about an hour of being startled by branches snapping and bushes rustling one could get used to it, but it wasn’t the case. The girls jumped back, putting some distance between them and the source of the sounds, making up it couldn’t be just a bird this time, it sounded like several bodies running towards them at great speed.

“Maybe it’s Jeremy?” Ripley suggested, clearly the least frightened of the group, remembering Rosie’s familiar, a huge dark grey moose named Jeremy.

It sort of made sense, if Jen was there looking for them perhaps Rosie had thought the same.

But usually they could see Jeremy’s antlers from miles away, even between the foliage; right now the darkness inside the forest was so deep they couldn’t even see the branches moving around.

Then a blinding light set off in the direction of the rustling and every girl knew it was a new familiar approaching them, they just weren’t quite sure whose it was.

A high-pitched howl cut through the night, seemingly coming from the light in front of them.

“Oh good, now there are wolves…” Molly muttered.

“That’s no wolf.” Jo said, mesmerized by the light in front of them and stepped forward.

She couldn’t really explain it, but against any logic or reason she was drawn to this light, like the strange howl was calling for her, trying to tell her something.

Jo took a few more steps, making sure to lower her body enough to keep looking at the light that was starting to take shape. It was some sort of canine, crouching low, ready to either attack or sprint away. Jo hoped for the latter if anything.

Then the light dimmed and she saw it.

It was a coyote, judging by its size and distinct reddish fur.

Jo’s expression shifted to a small smile once she looked into the coyote’s bright golden eyes.

“Hey…” Jo murmured, trying to seem as non-threatening as possible. Also maybe to calm her own nerves.

The animal lifted its head and its long ears fluttered, turning its head slightly to the side while eyeing Jo. The coyote seemed to be studying her, examining her expression carefully, until it finally seemed to relax and leaped at her, wagging its tail profusely.

Jo laughed while the coyote kept wagging its tail, hitting her while it moved between her legs and rubbed against her affectionately. Jo knelt down to properly greet the familiar, with gentle pats and scratches like it was a puppy, earning a few licks back once her face was within reach of the animal’s mouth.

“Okay, okay…” Jo tried to calm down the animal, before standing up again to turn to her friends. “Guys this is Yázhí.” The coyote wagged her tail, giving the girls a high-pitched bark.

“Puppy!” Ripley squealed excitedly, ready to charge at the little pupp- Coyote. Jen however placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her; these were still wild animals after all.

“I think it’s a coyote actually.” Molly corrected.

“Huge puppy!” Ripley then corrected.

The coyote paced around each of them, smelling them and wagging her tail. Ripley was mesmerized at how soft her reddish fur was while petting her and Yáhzí even stood up on her hind legs to give April a similar lick as it did to Jo.

Jo laughed once she noticed they were almost the same height.

“Great, even your dog is taller than me.” April growled trying to get Yázhí off of her, although laughing the whole time.

“That’s an unusual name.” Jen commented once the coyote circled back to Jo.

“It means ‘little one’ in Navajo.” Jo explained once Yázhí seemed to have settled down.

“Well, that’s two out of five.” Molly recounted. “Maybe waiting around is working.”

A familiar hoot resounded through the trees.

It was Copernicus, flying back towards them, but still quite far away.

Then there was a loud roar.

“That was quick.” Mal commented, thinking like the rest of them that this might be another familiar.

Then it roared again and they could hear it better. That wasn’t the roar of any animal they knew, it was much more sharp and reverberated for a few seconds almost to give time to your body to assimilate the fear before the beast would get to you. Instead of the eerie light that they had learned by now signaled the arrival of a familiar, a dense mist started covering the ground around them. The mysterious creature roared again, and a pair of red eyes came into view from deep inside the woods.

Suddenly Bowie started to caw nonstop and flap his wings and Yázhí was back on that low, wary stance, growling at the nothingness ahead. 

“That’s no familiar…” Jen muttered and stepped in front of the girls. “Run!” She cried, lifting her hand to shoot a quick spell in the direction of the creature.

Jen felt the, by now common, electricity flow through her arm, that was finally let out through the palm of her hand in the form of a bright lightning-like strike that zapped the beast, or almost, since it hit a bark tree that stood just next to it. A loud explosion and then the cracking of some branches told her the spell had worked to at least distract and possibly maim the creature, but they weren’t going to stick around and check, opting to run on the opposite direction and hopefully meet Copernicus on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This names and the ones to come all come from my personal headcanons for this AU that didn't make it to my tumblr, each is inspired by a mixture of each 'janes personalities, background and things they like, as you probably guessed:
> 
> Jen's little owl, Copernicus, is named after the famous astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus
> 
> Bowie is a given, named him after David Bowie for Mal's rebellious personality and affinity to music
> 
> Yázhí or Yahzi (pronuonced like "jazzy" if I understand correctly) is a Navajo name, due to Jo's heritage like it says on the fic, I got inspired looking up names from rescue wolves and coyotes on reservations around the world 
> 
> Disclaimer. I'm not Navajo myself, not even American, so if any spelling or meaning is butchered or anything, please let me know my mistake!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, that's why I'm uploding it next to chapter 2. Hope you enjoy!

“What is that thing?!” April questioned, leading the frantic sprint.

“Wyverbeast!” Jen answered.

“Bless you.” Ripley said, like they hadn’t been chased by a blood-thirsty creature for the past minutes.

“No! They’re demons, they feed off of magic!” Jen explained.

“But they live underground, don’t they? What is it doing here?” Molly asked, remembering a book she read about them.

“The magic of the familiars must have attracted it.” Jo said.

The chase was getting tiresome but they could hear the frantic steps of the creature’s several feet behind them. Jen looked down on the path, faintly illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the trees and saw a shadow moving along with them. They heard Copernicus again and Jen lifted her head to see the small silhouette flying above them.

“Copernicus!” She called. “Take us back to camp!”

The little owl in flight took a turn towards what they assumed was the east and the girls tried to make way as quick as possible through the branches and bushes on their way.

April suddenly stopped, making everyone turn their heads and trying to muster what April was thinking.

“Jo, give me a screen!” The ginger girl called and Jo acted quickly.

Jo turned around to fully face the beast from behind April and lifted her left hand with one swift movement, shooting a spell that created a wall of dense grey smoke in front of her, that enveloped April and the creature alike.

They had been practicing that move for a few weeks now; it was nice that it finally came handy.

Enveloped inside the smoke and away from the creature’s gaze, April leaped, barely avoiding the creature’s claws when it charged blindly towards her.

April curled up her hands into fists and conjured a boosting spell mouthing some words in an ancient language, but the creature moved quickly and the punch didn’t connect. Now April was separated from her friends by a gigantic centipede-like demon, whose sharp numerous teeth shone against the moonlight once again, as it readied to throw another bite at the witch. 

From the other side the girls called for April, desperate to think fast for a spell or anything that could save their friend. April, however, didn’t falter and curled up her fists again. It would take a while for her to be able to cast another spell since the last one had drained her a bit of her magic, but she could always throw a good old fashioned punch. 

The demon charged towards her erratically and April knew she could never dodge it’s huge bite, so she put up her fists and decided to charge too, looking for the small window of opportunity where she could hit the creature on the soft spot that resembled a bat’s nose on its face and hopefully stun it enough to run.

The creature was mere inches away from colliding with April when a blinding light emerged from behind the girl, quickly filtering through the trees around them in the blink of an eye, almost like lightning. If the girls didn’t know any better they would have thought April simply casted a powerful spell or they had somehow summoned a god of thunder (again). But they had grown acquainted to this sort of light in the past hours.

The group was barely able to see the impact from the blinding light in front of them, but the punch had connected with more power than the sheer brute force of a very strong teenager.

April’s familiar had come to the rescue, just at the last second.

Or at least they thought, they weren’t sure, until the demon was screeching that terrifying sound and cowering away back into the shadows of the dense forest.

“April!” Jen cried once she caught a glimpse of April’s ginger hair.

Once the light receded and the clouds of dust from the fight had cleared, the group managed to see April, knelt on the ground and covered in dust and scratches, barely managing to steady her breath.

Next to her, a small animal rubbed against her legs, gently prompting her to stand up.

It was a-

“Bunny!” Ripley screamed once she managed to see the animal next to her friend.

In no time the rest of the Roanokes ran back to their friend in relief. The second April managed to stand up straight she was away from the ground completely, since Jo had lifted her into a tight hug once she saw she was okay, the rest of the Roanokes and new animal friends joining soon after.

During this whole altercate and eventual reunion April’s bunny (hare, actually) never seemed to flinch or cower, instead looking poised and smug like she was right at home surrounded by all this chaos.

April let out a hearty laugh at the bone crushing hug Jo and the others decided to give, and since she was finally released, the hare hopped happily back to April, who knelt down again for the little animal to jump into her arms. 

“Thanks for helping me.” April said as she scratched the creature behind its long, black-tipped ears.

April’s look was unreadable for a moment, probably because she couldn’t organize her thoughts herself. On the one hand, she had been sure from the moment she knew she was a witch that her familiar would have to be, by all logic and fairness, a huge menacing animal, not a fluffy bunny.

On the other hand, this little animal/spirit had just saved her life, or at least spared her from one nasty bite at her right arm, all in a matter of seconds and without a second thought.

The hare hopped off from her arms and went on to greet the Roanokes one by one, moving its little tail all the while and finally setting on a quick run around the area with Yázhí, Bowie and Copernicus. April followed the hare around with her gaze until a smile crept on her face, perhaps she could admit to be wrong on her assumptions this time.

Jo placed a gentle hand on April’s shoulder, having an idea of the thoughts running through the girl’s mind.

Although the moment was cut short when Mal let out a snort.

“You laughed at my crow but your familiar is a fluffy bunny.” The older girl retorted through a laugh. They were all obviously above mocking another witch for their familiar, but playful teasing was always in order, especially between Mal and April.

“It’s a hare, thank you very much.” April said, crossing her arms and poking her tongue out at Mal. “And ‘hare’ name is Dorothy.” 

Mal groaned at the very intentional pun and at April’s ridiculous face after it. This was going to be a habit, that was sure.

The hare hopped back excitedly to her witch companion at the mention of her name, leaping into April’s arms suddenly. Ripley couldn’t contain herself any longer and joined on scratching and petting the familiar, the others following her shortly after her.

Three down, two to go.

And what a pair to go, because Ripley and Molly were the polar opposites of the whole experience. The first could barely contain her excitement and the latter dreaded more than ever the feeling in her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I'm curious if anyone can guess why is April's familiar named Dorothy  
> A clue: It's not after Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've been kind of MIA hehe sorry, but hey I'm not done with this AU just yet

The group had settled back into light jokes and conversation with the addition of the new familiar to the group, almost forgetting they were still very much lost deep inside the forest. 

Well, except for Jen, she hadn’t forgotten, and still looked very much worried, pacing around the clearing waiting for Copernicus, with her brows deep in a frown. 

“It’s okay, Jen. Copernicus will be back soon.” Ripley said to her, suddenly appearing by her side tugging at her sleeve and startling her a little, until she settled back on a small smile. 

Jen didn’t say anything, she didn’t really need to, so she just ruffled Ripley’s hair as a way to tell the younger girl that she believed her when she said everything would be okay. 

“Do we have to stay here? I’m a bit uncomfortable looking at the charred spot the demon and April’s familiar left over there.” Mal commented, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the aftermath of April’s encounter. 

It certainly was disturbing, the contrast of the charred, blackened remains of forest inside a perfect circle. Some trees around the scene had been scorched too, and a bit of smoke was still emanating from the ground. It certainly stood out amongst the dense green of the forest, not to mention the smell of burnt grass was a bit annoying. 

All the Roanokes turned to look at the scene with expressions ranging from fascinated (like Jo and Ripley) to downright disturbed (like Mal and Jen). They were certainly dealing with some powerful magic, not only from the familiars though. 

“Sadly we should, we don’t want to confuse Copernicus.” Jen finally said, steadying her voice as best as she could. 

A deep growl coming from inside the woods seemed to agree with her. 

“Or you know what? We could meet him halfway.” Jen concluded, rushing the rest of the Roanokes back to their improvised path and urging them to make it quick. Goes without saying, no one argued with that.

They continued their hasty walk until no more growls, roars, or weird noises could be heard, much to their relief, but Copernicus’ hooting was barely audible anymore. 

“We could throw a quick light spell to the sky so Copernicus sees us. Or Rosie.” April offered, still petting Dorothy who laid comfortably between her arms. 

“I think that would attract way more stuff than just Copernicus or Rosie.” Jo said, dreading the thought of facing any more demons for the night. 

Jen agreed, it was much too dangerous, they would have to keep walking and hope Copernicus would be able to locate them or magically stumble back to camp. Not that they were ever that lucky. 

“I’m hungry.” Ripley complained while the group kept walking, holding Mr. Sparkles tightly against her rumbling stomach. 

“Same.” Mal added, looking just as displeased. 

“How long have we been out here anyway?” Molly asked, glancing up at the sky and the moon.

No one could tell for certain, since Rosie had told them to leave all devices at the cabin, including watches, even the one Jo tried to sneak inside her shoe. The only thing they knew was that it had been hours, way much longer than necessary or anticipated. 

“Can’t we rush this or something? I’m dying to meet my familiar but I’m also dying for some chips.” Ripley said matter-of-factly. 

“And for some sleep.” April added. 

Jen sighed and turned to face her girls, crossing her arms. “I’m not sure. Maybe we could wait around again for a bit?”

“Or we could just leave…” Molly muttered under her breath, visibly uncomfortable, much like she had been the whole night. 

Mal caught her comment and looked back at her girlfriend concerned. She knew this was taking a huge toll on Molly, it had been for the past days. 

Despite being tired the girls kept walking towards what they hoped was north and back to camp. Jen’s compass had started to malfunction the moment she entered the forest and the clouds above made it difficult to see the stars for long enough to triangulate their position. They had no other choice than to wait for Copernicus.

“For a ritual that is such an integral part of a witch’s training, we sure know next to nothing about it.” Jo commented, scratching Yáhzí’s head as the coyote pressed closer to her.

“Well, magic is pretty mysterious either way.” Mal commented.

“Hey! I think there’s a trail over here!” Ripley called, half her body sticking out of green dense shrubs. 

Before any of them could tell the youngest of them to come back and how dangerous it was to stray from the group, Ripley did what she did best and sprinted further into the woods. 

“Ripley, wait!” Molly called for her, trying to keep up with the girl and disappearing after her deeper into the woods. 

Jen let out an exasperated sigh, being used to her campers doing this kind of thing regularly, but did they have to run off tonight? Apparently, yes.

“Everyone stay close!” Jen instructed as the remaining members of the group ran after their friends. The last thing they needed right now was to get separated.

The remaining Roanokes called for Ripley and Molly, doing their best to follow the subtle trail of leaves and broken twigs, but it soon became impossible. Molly and Ripley were nowhere in sight, and there was that strange noise again.

Mal swallowed hard. She knew Molly could take care of herself, but that didn't make the feeling in her stomach settle at all. 

“Rip, stop!” Molly said, almost out of breath but finally catching up with Ripley. “You can’t run off like that.” Molly placed a hand on Ripley's shoulder and took a few deep breaths to steady.

“I know but I swear I saw something around this trail.” The little girl cried, still frantically looking around. 

They were near an old hiking trail, not sure if it was one of the ones that led to camp. 

Molly eyed the clearing for a second, then heard the rustling of leaves Ripley had been following. 

“There it is.” Ripley whispered, turning too in the direction of the noise. Neither of them dared to move, just in case. “Do you think it’s any of our familiars?” Ripley whispered again.

“I don’t know.” Molly answered gently. She didn’t know what she was more afraid of, finding her familiar or another demon.

The rustling came closer and closer, sounding more menacing and bigger than before. What once sounded like a small rodent running around the woods now resembled a bear running frantically, towards them no less. 

"Let's go!" Molly wasted no time dragging Ripley along with her, getting out of the path and away from the sound. 

"Did you see it?" Ripley asked, looking back as they ran away from whatever the sound was. It was apparently chasing them. 

Molly looked around frantically, trying to find somewhere to run that could help them lose the thing hot on their trail. Finally, she saw a small slope, if it really was a big thing, be it bear or demon, the slope would make it trip and buy the girls enough time to run away. 

The older girl led Ripley back towards the opening she saw, instructing her about her plan and to be careful where she stepped. The slope became steeper, but at least the rustling sound farther away. 

Molly smiled through her tired breaths but neither of them slowed down, just in case. 

Further into the woods, Ripley swore she could see one of the trail signs from camp, which meant a possible way back to the safety of their beds. 

They ran towards it, the familiar yellow sign taking shape under the moonlight. 

Or something brighter. 

Near the sign started to shine a bright light, similar to headlights in almost every way but much eerier. Ripley hadn't quite seen it yet, it was still far away and she was focused on trying to figure out what exactly was chasing them, but Molly saw it clearly. 

It was the same light they had been running into all night, a familiar. 

Something came over her, it wasn't quite fear, but the pressure in her chest similar to stress. An instinct inside her that told to run the other way and never look back, a little voice inside her head that whispered the worst-case scenario and that had been working overtime all night. 

Molly took a tentative look at Ripley and made her choice. 

"Over here." molly said, suddenly changing ways quickly, away from the rustling but also away from the light. 

"Why?" Ripley asked, fairly confused about the change of plans but she trusted Molly. 

"I saw something moving there. Maybe there's more of those things." Molly explained and ushered Ripley to move faster. 

The little girl decidedly obliged and Molly swallowed the lump in her throat at the lie. 

The girls kept running until no discernable way was ahead of them. The rustling had stopped, but they knew it could catch up with them. Still, Molly and Ripley were tired, so a light jog would have to suffice for now. 

Molly felt terrible, thinking about the consequences of straying further from a familiar trail, but she didn’t regret her choice. Not yet at least. 

Both girls looked around for any sign of a trail or their friends, but while Ripley inspected behind some bushes, Molly saw a faint light filtering through the trees. 

Again this light, that was supposed to bring her sich calm, was advancing towards them menacingly. 

Molly took a step back and balled her hands into fists. 

"Let's get a move on, Rip.'' Molly commanded and her seriousness didn't go unnoticed by Ripley. 

She argued that they were finally away from that weird sound and that maybe staying put to find their friends was the best strategy, but Molly had an urgency in her tone that simply couldn't be reasoned with. She claimed to have heard something, and that they had to keep moving to stay safe. 

This pattern repeated for a while until Ripley had had enough. She might be young, but she could tell when something was happening. 

The shorter girl came to a sudden halt, startling Molly and forcing her to turn away and face her. 

"Molly, stop! There's nothing chasing us." Ripley yelled, but Molly kept fidgeting and looking over her shoulder. She knew she must look crazy, but she didn’t care. 

"Rip, come on. There might be a trail near." Molly said softly, but not even she believed her tone anymore. 

"Or maybe it isn't. I know I'm usually the one who likes to run off but the others might be worried." Ripley argued, sounding much wiser than her years let on. 

But Molly still had this anxious feeling inside. She couldn't face her familiar, she simply couldn't. She would try again some other night, she would explain everything to Ripley later, but not now. Just when she turned to argue again, the same light she had been avoiding for some time began to shine again, brighter than she had ever seen. 

"Is that…" Ripley mumbled. 

Molly looked between the forest ahead and the light, menacingly advancing towards her and only her. She knew better than what she was doing, she knew the manuals and rituals and safety books by heart, and still, she went and ignored them all. 

The blonde girl shut off every single alarm inside her head that told her this was wrong and ran down the uncharted trail, deeper into the woods. 

All she could hear was Ripley calling for her. It broke her heart, to think she left her friend, her youngest friend at that, behind. But she wasn't thinking, not anymore. 

Molly ran and ran until she couldn’t hear a thing from the sound of her heart beating all the way up to her ears. She didn’t care about how much her legs ache or how she nearly tripped a bunch of times. She had to get out of there. 

When Molly opened her eyes again and allowed herself a rest from her run all she could see was darkness. The darkness of the forest, engulfing her. She tried to look up at the stars or the moon, any source of light, but the branches above her were much too thick, their dark green almost resembled black. 

She looked around and found nothing more than darkness and dense forest around, and well, what else could she expect. 

Suddenly the weight of every single decision she had taken in the past minutes hit Molly with full force. She was lost, alone, tired and probably in danger, all because she couldn’t carry on with the most basic of witch rituals there was. 

But it wasn’t about the ritual, Molly knew that deep down. She even liked this stuff dammit. 

She couldn’t face her family. 

She couldn’t face another reminder of all the terrible things her family name carried.

Molly took a deep breath and tried to ignore how it hitched on her throat and how her eyes burned with tears, deciding to finally take a break to sit on a nearby log. 

She had to think of something, anything that could take her back to her friends safely. 

Molly made her best to think good thoughts, anything to clear her head. Her friends, her summer at camp, Mal. 

The blonde girl’s breath was steadying again but it didn’t last long. The sound of a deep growl alerted her and made her stand back up, trying desperately to look around the darkness and hope whatever came out of it was at least friendly. Calming down was getting increasingly difficult, her mind was plagued with all the possibilities to what that growled could be. 

Another demon, a cryptid, hell they had even seen dinosaurs around camo before. 

And this time was different, worse. This time she was all alone. 

The growling came closer and closer, and Molly swore it sounded hungry. 

Before she could find out what it was or even where it was coming from Molly did the next best thing and started running, grabbing a big branch from the floor. 

She knew her magic wouldn’t be too strong with how weak she felt, all that running had taken a toll on her not to mention the lack of sleep, but she could still throw one hell of a swing. 

That previous rustling of leaves was nothing compared to what was chasing her now, short, frantic breaths with short intervals of growls and what sounded like jaws closing, one of which sounded dangerously close to her arm. 

Eventually, Molly couldn’t run anymore, she was facing a huge rock-solid wall, she must be near the base of the mountain, maybe even near the old waterfall. If she could see anything more than a foot in front of her perhaps she could use that information in her favor, but it was useless. Wherever Molly touched it was nothing but solid rock in front of her and a few trees. 

She turned away and tried to stand up as tall as possible, gripping the branch tightly with both arms. 

“Come and get me, then…” Molly muttered, nearly out of breath. 

Her eyes focused in front of her and took tentative steps behind her until her back crashed against the rock wall. 

Just in time, a pair of glowing red eyes shined through the darkness in front of her, showing a huge, manic smile filled with sharp teeth and thick drool that told her only one thing. This creature was hungry. 

Molly’s knuckles were turning white with how tightly she was gripping her make-do weapon. She had to think quickly, a well-timed strike and a light spell could buy her enough time to run away if-

“Get away from my friend!” She knew that scream. The voice of the most fearless camper around. 

Molly turned in time to find Ripley and her signature battle cry clashing against the creature, except Ripley wasn’t alone. She was galloping on the back of a creature Molly had never seen personally, and she had seen Ripley riding an array of beasts from velociraptors to pumpkin creatures. 

Ripley held tight to a blue-colored mane as her companion rammed against the monster. When a glint of green, thick liquid spluttered from its side Molly finally managed to get a look at the horn on Ripley’s new friend’s? head. 

This was undoubtedly Ripley’s familiar; a tall, regal unicorn, with a coat of white hair and dark blue mane, that almost resembled Ripley’s own streak of blue hair April had given her on the first day of camp with a transmutation spell. 

Molly couldn’t move, still too shocked to find her friend literally galloping in her direction on the back of one of the rarest beasts of the magic world, but she could afford some questions later. Right now she had to help Ripley. 

The creature was clearly injured, but it was still hungry. After a chilling shriek, it launched itself again out of the way of Ripley’s fire spell and back in Molly’s direction. Its snake-like body was quick, but Molly managed to move in time and carry on with her plan of punching the lights out of the demon with her branch, a good swing straight to one of its red eyes, but not hard enough to stunt it. 

Another shriek and the creature only seemed to get angrier, setting its sights back on Molly. 

The blonde girl barely escaped a bite the creature threw at her, and when it readied to haul itself at her, the sight of Ripley and her familiar came to her aid once again. 

The unicorn stood on its hind legs to stand menacingly atop the demon and throw a few kicks at it, but in the process took a good hit from the demon’s spiked tail. Ripley tried to steady her steed, but the unicorn inevitably fell on its back with a pained bray. 

“Ripley!” Molly cried at the sight of her friend meeting the ground with a loud thud, along with the two thousand pounds beast on top of her. 

Molly threw a fire spell through clenched teeth, although not as powerful as she expected. She was still too weak. 

The discarded branch had snapped against the creature's face a while ago, but one of the stakes that flew off could still serve her somehow. Molly once again ran without thinking, but this time in the direction of the monster, stake in hand, before it could catch a bite of her friend. 

She knew many things about these demons, like how close combat was most likely a suicide mission, but she had to try. If anything happened to Ripley because of her, she could never forgive herself. 

Molly jumped to catch some momentum in her strike and the demon took no time to turn up towards her, sharp teeth ready to clash against soft flesh. 

Molly closed her eyes and hoped for the best, that’s all she could do. 

With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see the blinding light that suddenly appeared from behind her, but Ripley could. 

She had never seen a brighter light in her short life and she was starstruck, to say the least. 

When Molly met cold, damp ground instead of teeth and claws she opened her eyes again, to find the blinding light she had been avoiding all night striking against the demon and burning holes on it’s thick skin with each impact. The demon shrieked and cried until it finally cowered back into the darkness of the forest. 

Molly only laid there for a few seconds, seeing how the light started to take the shape of a small bird that chased away the demon. 

The stake Molly had been holding fell to the ground and she turned back quickly, rushing towards Ripley and her unicorn to check for any injuries. 

The beast stood up quickly, albeit with a bit of help from Molly, and Ripley was free again. 

“Ripley. Ripley, are you okay?” Molly asked, desperation dripping in her voice at the sight of her friend covered in even more leaves and scratches than usual.

Ripley sat up with Molly’s help, and despite her slight dizziness and ruffed state, a huge smile still crept on her face.

“Molly, that was amazing!” She yelled, throwing her arms up in celebrating and Molly swore she could see stars in her eyes.

Molly let out a deep breath and wrapped her arms around Ripley, everything was alright. 

The light never returned to the place of the fight, but the sound of Ripley’s unicorn neighing caught their attention back to a small pigeon, perched not too far away on a branch. 

Ripley went to settle her familiar down with some rubs to its nose, while Molly stood still, eyeing the bird warily. It seemed, sad? nervous?

“Is that your familiar?” Ripley asked. She couldn’t make up the shape of the small bird form so far away. 

“I think it is.” Molly muttered, taking a tentative step towards it. 

When a branch crunched under Molly’s step the bird seemed to get scared, extending its wings as if to fly away any second now. 

Molly lowered herself and extended a careful hand towards it.

“It’s okay. I know you’re nervous.” Molly muttered and the bird seemed to relax at her soft words. “I’m nervous too.” 

Molly now stood a few feet away from the small bird and she could see its small form, a bit chunkier than the other prey birds around camp but definitely bigger than a songbird. It’s small beak reminded her of a pigeon, but the slightly green plumage threw her off her hypothesis a little. She had never seen a bird like these before. 

The familiar seemed to sense the intense gaze on it’s plumage and wrapped itself on its wings. Molly looked back at its eyes, he was definitely scared. 

He reminded her of her first day at camp. Left alone and catching unwanted attention, lost, nervous, scared. 

“I’m sorry I ran away earlier.” Molly began and the bird seemed to perk up slightly. “Could we start over?” Molly’s tone was sweet and calm, as it usually was.

Not a second later the bird cooed happily and flew in one swift movement to perch atop Molly’s extended hand. The robot-like turning of its head made Molly let out a chuckle, which the little bird was happy to return with another coo. 

Ripley usually jumped at any chance she got to pet any new animals, especially magical, but even she could sense the delicacy of the display in front of her.

“What’s their name?” Ripley asked with a soft voice that was so rare in her, still gripping at the neck of her steed, who also looked at the bird with curious eyes.

“His name is Hermes.” Moly answered, turning towards Ripley and her unicorn while gently caressing the feathers on her bird’s chest. 

Ripley jumped forward to eye the small bird better, her eyes big like saucers, but she didn’t dare touch him just in case. 

“So cool! I didn’t know pigeons came in green!” The younger girl cried. 

Molly let out a laugh again. She didn’t know either, but this was certainly a special bird. 

“They do, apparently.” She answered and watched as the burd grew steadily more comfortable with Ripley until it grew confident enough to fly around her and her unicorn.

Right, she should ask about the unicorn.

“And, uhm, Ripley? This is...?” Molly asked tentatively, still eyeing the towering steed as it played with the fluttering bird around it. 

Ripley clasped her face with both her hands, astonished she had forgotten such an important detail.

“Shoot! Where are my manners? Molly, meet Sparkles Jr.” Ripley said with a funny accent and extending jazz hands towards the white steed. 

Sparkles Jr. in return faced Molly, lowering his long neck on a sort of reverence. Molly returned the gesture, lowering herself and mimicking Ripley’s accent.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sparkles Jr.”

He seemed so calm and regal, a wild contrast to Ripley. Until Ripley ran back towards him to wrap a hug around its muscular form, to which the horse galloped around and neighed happily, it sounded very in tune with Ripley’s chuckle. 

The air around them seemed calmer and the scenery seemed to clear away with the new shine of a full moon, the clouds were starting to clear away. 

“We should go find the others.” Molly said, looking back inside the forest ahead. 

Perhaps their new friends could help.

“Onwards, Sparkles Jr!” Ripley cried from atop her familiar, and in one swift movement Ripley scooped Molly up by her shirt to land on the back of the unicorn.

Or so she tried, Molly was a bit too heavy for Ripley to lift, so she tried her best to accommodate on the back of the unicorn before falling off. Some quick help from Hermes tugging at her shirt did the trick.

“Thanks.” Molly muttered back to the small bird, now flying swiftly beside them. The glint in his eyes told her he understood perfectly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Molly's familiar, if you're interested, is an African green pigeon because the color was really nice and reminded me of Molly, besides, pigeons are really smart and brave animals, like Molly. I don't think I have to explain the reason behind his name, Molly is just that much of a nerd.
> 
> And Ripley, well, she's Ripley! She's pretty special so she deserves a very special familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> Actual little animals coming up next chapter, I just love drama and setting up the tone.


End file.
